Nobody books an event photographer thinking about liability — until a five-star venue requests an insurance certificate two days before load-in, or a memory card fails after an unrepeatable evening. A handful of questions, asked before booking, separate professionals from hobbyists long before anything can go wrong.

1. Do You Carry Liability Insurance?

A photographer moves through your event with equipment, light stands and cables among guests, glassware and historic furniture. Professional liability insurance (odpovědnost za škodu) covers damage to venue property or injury connected to the photographer’s work. Prague’s premium venues — palaces, museums, five-star hotels — increasingly require proof of coverage before granting access, and a photographer who cannot produce a certificate can stall your production week. Ask early; professionals answer in one email.

2. What Happens If You Cannot Attend?

Events do not reschedule around a photographer’s flu. The professional answer involves a named backup network — colleagues of comparable standard, briefed contractually, with your shot list transferable on a morning’s notice. “That has never happened to me” is not a contingency plan; it is the absence of one.

3. How Do You Protect the Images Between Shutter and Delivery?

The most probable disaster in event photography is not a broken lens — it is data loss. The professional baseline: cameras writing to two cards simultaneously, cards never formatted until delivery is confirmed, a working backup made before leaving the venue, and geographically separated copies within 24 hours. Ask the question and listen for whether the answer sounds like a rehearsed system or an improvisation.

4. What Does Your Contract Actually Promise?

A serious agreement specifies deliverable counts, deadlines, usage rights, confidentiality, cancellation terms in both directions, and a defined liability cap. Czech practice commonly limits the photographer’s liability to the contract value — reasonable for both sides, but it should be written, not assumed. If there is no contract, every one of these questions has the same answer: nobody knows.

5. Are You Actually a Business?

Prosaic but fundamental: a registered trade (IČO), proper invoicing, and the ability to pass your procurement department’s vendor checks. Corporate clients occasionally discover at invoice time that their photographer cannot issue one. Thirty seconds in the public register (ARES) prevents that conversation.

None of this is glamorous, and all of it is why established clients rebook established professionals. Pro Event Prague operates as a registered, insured business (IČO: 08349541) — and we would rather you ask these questions than need to.